You can use the following script to contact elementary schools in your area and tell them about the Run Drugs Out of Town Run

1.  Hello, my name is _______ and I am a volunteer with INPSIREHealth.org.  We are a tax exempt non-profit organization concerned about drug abuse prevention and we would like to help your students raise awareness and money for drug abuse prevention at your school.

2.  Do you have a minute or two for me to tell you about our program?

         If yes proceed to #3. 

         If no ask if there is a better time to talk?  Then schedule that time to call back.

         You can also ask for their email address so we can send them more information.

3.  The Relay:  As important as it may be to teach kids about the problems with drugs it is at least as important to empower them and give them the tools to make better choices.  Our Run Drugs Out of Town Run has been successful with schools and community groups at doing just that.  One thing we have learned is that with older students the name lacks a certain amount of appeal so for middle and high schools we created the Relay4Us to give your students an opportunity for  everyone to succeed and a chance for them to show the community just what they can do.

You can stage The Relay during school time or on a weekend and past events have gone anywhere from 4 to 24 hours.  Relay teams can be made up of members of athletic squads, campus clubs or just a group of 10 to 15 friends.

To help get the kids more involved and to help them raise money for whatever your school needs we recommend that you use this as a fundraiser. 

4.  Fundraising:  The first thing to do is decide what you want to raise money for.  It can be to pay for a prevention program, replace work out equipment in the gym or purchase new computers.  The thing to keep in mind here is anything that helps kids be better people is effective drug abuse prevention.  Unlike other programs we discourage kids from going door to door to ask for donations.  Going door to door puts kids at risk and annoys too many neighbors.

We do recommend that your students sit down with their parents and go through the family address book.  They should only call relatives and friends who will know who the child is when they answer the phone.  When they call they should introduce them self and say, "I am going to run in the Relay4Us to raise money for ____ at my school and wanted to know if you can sponsor me?" 

Imagine the effect of your students make 10 or 20 of those calls.  If they only average $1 from each call you will have a lot of money that was not in your budget before.

Then think about how you will use the money.  We suggest that you allow relay teams to keep half of what they raise to use for what they want and pool the other half for the school to use.

5.  What you get:  Everyone who runs in The Relay is a winner and gets one of our T-shirts.   The front has our logo with our slogan, "Watch and see what we can do."   The back of the shirt is your do fill up however you choose.  You can put your school motto, mascot, time and date, sponsor logos or student contributions in one color ink.  You can also have different colors for each team which will make it a lot easier to keep track of runners as they complete laps.

We provide your school with teaching materials for your library, literature to pass out to kids and parents and PowerPoint presentations to use in the classroom, parent/teacher or faculty meetings.  All of these materials are included regardless of what level you come in at. 

We will also show you how to get a lot more gifts for the runners from businesses in your community

6.  How do we feed everyone?  Have a couple of parents of teacher bring their gas grill in the back of their SUV and you will be able to cook all the burgers, hot dogs and chicken donated by local supermarkets.  Pizza, the primary food of teenagers will not only provide more of the carbs runners need but most pizza parlors will gladly donate a stack of pies to your event. 

We will give you a lot more tips on how to feed everyone for free.

7.  Cost:  We ask only that you pay $10/shirt for runners and volunteers.  If you pay for the shirts two weeks prior to your event we will give you a 10% discount.  The money your runners will raise should more than offset this cost.

8.  Closing:  Schools that have done the Jump Rope for Your Heart with the American Heart Association have raised as much as $87,000 which was given to the American Heart Association.  Schools that do the Relay for Life with the American Cancer Society typically raise at least $50,000 which goes to the American Cancer Society. 

Imagine what you can do if your students raise that kind of money for their school.  Imagine how empowered they will feel!

 If they say yes:  verify their contact info including:

•   School name
•   Contact person
•   Street address
•   City, state zip
•   Phone number
•   email address

Ask if they have any idea what date they are considering staging The Relay.

Answer whatever question you can and then send the rest of the questions to us at info@inspirehealth.org

 If they say no:  Always be courteous and respectful.  Not everyone will want to stage The Run and rejection is nothing personal.  Never try to oversell of force feed anyone.  You will be wasting your time and will give us a bad name.

 If they sound uncertain: 

Offer to have someone talk to them about more details

Offer to email or mail them more information

Give them links so they can go right to the web page

Below are links that will help answer questions.  Any questions you can't answer should be referred to us at info@inspirehealt.org